Protecting rights of digital content has become increasingly difficult in this digital age. Using the Internet, unauthorized copying and sharing of digital content can be carried out with the greatest of ease. One popular approach for protecting rights of digital content is the use of a Digital Rights Management (DRM) system. Conventional DRM systems typically include at least two parties: a content provider and a rights entity. In operation, the user registers with the rights entity and obtains a decryption means. When the user requests digital content from the content provider, the digital content is sent to the user as an encrypted file. The digital content in the file can be accessed after the file has been decrypted using the decryption means.
Conventional DRM systems work well for protecting digital content that is strictly data in nature. Digital data such as music files and video files can be protected using a variety of encryption schemes. However, encryption does not work well for protecting computer software. Unlike data, computer programs are designed to perform operations and often require installation. It is not efficient to use encryption to protect a computer program due to architectural complexity and extraneous operation overhead associated with the required decryption mechanisms. Conventional DRM systems are even less feasible for protecting computer software designed for mobile computing devices, where system resources are of a premium.
An effective and efficient method for controlling illegal distribution of computer software eludes those skilled in the art.